The Fair

Stick Boy enjoying a caramel apple

Saturday at noon we moved the trailers and other comforts of home to the fair.  The animals had to be in their pens at 2:30 AM.  My back was killing me, so Stick Boy and I decided stay at camp and set up the temporary fodder system and enjoy the fair while Darling Husband and Teen Son went home to load up the FFA lambs. 

This was our temporary fodder set up.

The display that the guys set up.

Fair schedule for the kids is to get up at 6AM go into the fair grounds to clean and feed the animals.  On the days the kids and their animals are being judged the animals need to be washed (cattle are even blow dried) before the fair opens at 10: am.  Teen Son had 2 lambs so the mornings he showed his lambs were pretty stressful.  Then they need to keep all pens clean though out the day so visitors to the fair get to see the animals but not smell them.  The animals are fed usually about 5 pm.  Our FFA group had meetings at 8: pm and after the fair closes one last check on the animals.  It is fun and exhausting. 

The lambs are all walked around being held by behind their ears.

The judge checking out the sheep.  He decided our sheep were too short in the body.

Poor Darling Husband spent most nights at home but often would come to the fair for a few hours then drive home.  

Kids showing animals can only have one animal go to auction so we had to barn sell one of the animals.  Auction price is by the pound so Teen Son decided to sell the largest lamb at auction and find a buyer for the fodder fed lamb.  He had several ofer so he ended up making a profit on both lambs.  

 

Enjoying the fair.

Grandpa came to the fair and gave the boys money for a treat.  When the rest of the kids came Stick Boy shared his treat with them.  Teen Son was too tired to join them.

Buyers Letter

Part of getting ready for fair is writing a “Buyers Letter”.  It is a hated job but it is to attract interest in your animal.  After much grumbling from Teen Son and threats from Mean Mom, Darling Husband even had to step in and became Lay The Law Down Dad.  And the Buyers Letter was done. 

                                Fed grain ↑                                        Fed fodder ↑

My name is Teen Son (16) of FFA and I am raising two sheep for this year’s County Fair on completely different feeds. One sheep, Oh-bla-di, is feed the normal Show Maker Lamb Slam found in almost any feed store. However, as an experiment, Oh-bla-da (a twin to Oh-bla-di for optimal test results), is fed with something quite different entirely.  It’s called fodder, grown on our property in a 40ft cargo container set up specifically for growing fodder. The simple process starts with soaking seeds (barley seeds in our case) for 12 hours, then spreading them out on plastic trays, with holes in the bottom so water can flow through, and placing them on racks. After being watered there for about 5 days, the seeds grow into grass.  At this point we rip the fodder up into pieces small enough for our cows to handle and feed it to them. One tray of fodder is set aside for Oh-bla-da, ripped up into slightly smaller pieces and then fed to him with a handful of Alfalfa hay. Meanwhile, Oh-bla-di is fed the usual grain and hay.  Also, my Fair sheep, along with our other sheep, get to free range our 17 acres during the day, eating naturally as sheep should while gaining added exercise and muscle tone. All while being carefully watched by the dogs that protect them from dangers such as coyotes.

Free ranging sheep

  

                   

The Fodder Racks       Good daily crop        Top row for final day

When I bought these two sheep from my breeder, they were only five pounds apart, and otherwise identical. As of now, Oh-bla-di (being fed average grain) seems more muscular while Oh-bla-da (fed fodder) seems to be a little more round in his stomach area. Both are very energetic and are seen running, jumping and skipping quite often. I can hardly wait to see what their differences will be when the Fair comes around and I greatly hope, when sold, they go to the same people so I might get some feedback on whose meat was better. As you can see from the attached page, I pay about four times more to feed Oh-bla-di grain as Oh-bla-da’s fodder diet even if it does take a little more work. This could possibly be the future of feeding live stock both more efficiently and economically. It all rides on Auction Day, June 5, 2014, to see if it was all worth it and if fodder could be the key to less expensive and tastier meat for all.

Two Sheep, Two Feeds

Sheep, two triplets:       Oh-bla-di            Oh-bla-da

Feeds:                   Store bought Grain      Home grown Fodder

 Crude Protein:   17.7%                                      20.2%

Crude Fat:           4.2%                              4.3%

Crude Fiber:                  5.5%                              11.3%

Ash:                      7.2%                              N/A

Calcium:              .192%-1.3%                            .15%

50lbs bag=$20     50lbs cost $15.

50lbs=9.5 days     50 lbs of seed = 30 trays        

5 1/4lbs per day   1 tray per day

1.5 lbs of seed per day

$2 per day of feed         $.50 per day for fee

    

If a thousand sheep are needed to be fed, and you had the option of two thousand or five hundred dollars a day, which would you choose? Say you feed them strictly on these substances for a year. That’s an option of $730,000 or $182,500; a possible savings of $547,500 or being able to raise an extra 3,000 sheep that year.

For more information about fodder please visit: http://www.foddersolutions.net/. Want to know more about our ranch? Visit the blog at 

I am very proud of the finished product.  He worked very hard on it and it couldn't have been easy because Darling Husband and I kept giving him different advice.  I had trouble transferring it over to the blog so his letter is much better.  

Rain and Sheep

 

 

It has been a very dry year.  Even though the sheep have most of 10 acres to roam and eat they have taken to running into the pasture and sneaking the cattle’s food in the morning.  We received a little over an inch of rain in early March and we are seeing some grass from that rain. 

 

 

The FFA sheep and our original 8 sheep are kind of 2 different herds of sheep.  The FFA sheep love the dogs and want them around while the rest of our sheep would rather the dogs run away.  They are starting to interact more and it’s fun to watch the dogs try to stay calm when they really want to lick the sheeps faces.  A few of our sheep are looking very pregnant and I wonder how much longer we have before we have baby lambs. 

The Dogs

Luca has been with us 2 weeks now.  We are enjoying him so much.  I am amazed at how much calmer Luca is than any dog we have ever owned, even as a puppy Luca has a calm peaceful presence.  Dakota is always trying to get Luca to run and play.  Dakota really wants to play ball with Luca – Luca isn’t interested.  Very rarely Luca will want to play when Dakota is tired so Luca will grab a tennis ball and run past Dakota.  

Game On!  Dakota cannot resist the chase. 

Luca has taken over Dakota’s bed and will sometimes take both of Dakota’s bones, Dakota doesn’t mind.  The dogs are really enjoying each other.  We let them play for a while every day. 

Luca spends is sleeping in a crate by my bedroom, in the morning we go for a walk and take care of the rest of the animals.  Then Luca is on a cable by the sheep’s enclosure.  I let 2 sheep out each morning and the rest are in the enclosure close to Luca.  Some of the sheep stay close to Luca others wander off.  When I get home in the afternoon Luca and I walk around the property, I let the rest of the sheep out, Luca and I watch the sheep for a little while, then I let Luca run free until we put the animals away for the night.  I am not trusting Luca with the birds so the poultry are being kept in their coops.  

The County Fair

We went to the fair with Teen Son’s FFA.  We all met in a parking lot at 8:30 and moved our trailer to our sight at the horses stables at the fair grounds at 9:30.  By 10: we were set up and ready for Darling Husband and Teen Son to go home.  The youngest 2 and I spent the night at the fairgrounds.  The next morning Teen Son was up at 5:am to help load animals onto the stock trailer to bring them to the fair and was back at the fair grounds at 7:am with all the FFA animals. 

Notice Teen Son, in the blue jacket standing calmly while all the other kids are stressing with their animals.

The day of Market Judging (judging to see if we had an animal that was market worthy and eligible for auction) arrived. We thought we had Penelope perfectly trained.  I sat in the stands to and watched Teen Son and his sheep enjoying each other and posing in the proper positions for judging.  I was so proud so many of the sheep were jumping and stressed out, Penelope just stood there calmly as Teen Son scratched her. 

 Then the judge said Penelope had too much "that needed to be trimmed off" – meaning she is fat.  FAT!!!  As soon as they left the ring a FFA parent and grandparent came up to me and asked me if Teen Son had been given lessons on how to show his sheep.   I said no just how to position her.  It turns out you want an animal that is tense when the judge touches it so the judge can feel her muscles.  It isn’t about just standing and posing your animal.  We also decided that Penelope needed to be sheared again Poor Girl!  The next time the judge saw Teen Son and Penelope in the show ring the Judge told Teen Son he had made great improvements and Penelope should have done much better in the Market Judging. 

The kids with animals at the fair are up at 6:am to clean the pen, clean the animal, feed the animal, and make sure every thing is ok.  Then they get to come back to our camping area and have breakfast.  While the fair is open groups of kids are in charge of keeping the animal’s area clean.  The kids who are showing cattle wash and blow dry their steer or heifer’s coat making it nice and fluffy every day.  All the animals need some exercise every day.  Since Teen Son had heard that Penelope was fat he ran her every night, and practiced with her every day.  The animals are fed again in the early evening, we would have a meeting at 9:pm, then they would check on the animals one last time before bed. 

We sold Penelope at auction and bought ½ a pig, Black Ops, at the fair.  We picked him up at the butcher 2 weeks after the fair and he is delicious. 

We had an amazing time getting to know a lot of the other FFA families.  It was very nice having a trailer at the fair.  We could go and walk around then when we were tired we would go to the trailer for a snack and nap, but 10 Days is a long time to be at the fair.  Next year Teen Son is hoping to do a lamb and a turkey.

Shearing The Sheep

 

Our first attempt  with Deer

First attempt with Blackwell

The wool sheep needed to be sheared and Teen Son’s FFA sheep needed to be sheared. Teen Son’s FFA teacher loaned us her shearers.  We decided to start with one of the sheep that will not be shown at the county fair.  We started with Deer and the shearers did nothing to her fur, we actually pulled more off with our hands than we cut off.  So we it tried on Blackwell and it started going through but it was a long slow process.  It took 30 minutes to get one hip done. 

Teen Son contacted his teacher and she told him to wash Penelope before we tried shearing her again.  Penelope did not enjoy being washed but we got her done and then the shearers worked a little better but still very slow.  Poor Penelope got immensely board, we got tired and frustrated. We stopped torturing her when she was about 1/3 done.

 We called the feed store we normally use and they do not carry shearing supplies so we went to the other store and bought Large Animal Clippers.  A man at the store said he had just used them to shear 20 sheep so awesome! We bought them.  We were able to shear Penelope but still painfully long and not beautiful so we cleaned them and returned them.  By now poor Penelope was about ½ sheared. 

I ordered Oster ShearMaster Shearers.  $300 and a few days later as soon as UPS dropped off the shearers we sheared Penelope quickly and easily after school one evening.

Penelope finally sheared.

The other sheep checking out Penelope.

 

Let me take a break to talk about the process of sheep shearing.  If you look up how to shear a sheep on You Tube you will see lots of videos of people (mostly large men) flipping a sheep up on their butts and holding the sheep against the mans body with one hand and shearing the sheep with their other hand. When the sheep are flopped on their backs or buts they seem to pass out or relax.  Blackwell would lick me while we were trying to do it.  This works great if you are over 6 feet tall and strong. – I am neither!  We watched hours of the videos looking for a way that didn’t break my back.  When it came down to it, it was much easier for me to hold our sheep either on my lap or them standing and me sitting in a chair.  Maybe if we had wild sheep the flipping them around might be better. 

Maxwell

Saturday morning we start shearing, I held the sheep while Teen Son used the shearers.  We started with Maxwell because I caught her first and she is the most skittish so we thought we would get her done first.  Maxwell was sheared quickly and easily with our new shearers.  She had one slight cut.  We were super confident.  We grabbed Dot and she was so relaxed while we were shearing her she kept reaching for grass to eat she took a step while we were not holding her skin tight enough and took a slice out of her leg.  We called College Girl and asked her to bring home some antibiotic spray for Dot's cut. 

Blackwell before

Then we started on Blackwell and decided to have fun with her hair cut and we left the wool long around her neck like a lion’s mane.  We were able to trim Blackwell with just a few nicks.

When we finished shearing the sheep and they all were together again Penelope realized she was not the smallest sheep she was the biggest!  She spent a few hours pushing the others around and butting heads to make sure everyone knew she was a big girl. 

Blackwell after, being told by Penelope "I'm Bigger than YOU!"

Teen Son took Penelope to be weighed and his teacher felt she needed to be resheared, again, so her wool would be shorter.  Teen Son contacted the breeder we bought Penelope from and asked her to help us.  She came with a shearing stand!  It is pretty similar to a goat’s milk stand and we put Penelope on it and she gave us a lesson on shearing.  Unfortunately her shearers were not working right.  She showed us how our shearers are shaped badly and make it easy to cut the sheep.  She and Teen Son got the wool on Penelope much shorter.  We felt very successful.  

Where Is My Phone

It has been Spring Break here so the kids and I have no school or work.  It has been very nice.  I have been letting the kids sleep in.  Dakota and I go take care of the chickens, turkeys, and fodder.  It is not easy to be around the birds with my dog but he gets a nice walk and time with me.  Then I go back into the house to get at least one child to help with sheep.   The new sheep are not easy to care for yet.  The first 5 sheep are easier but still little buggers.  I occasionally get knocked over or a sheep runs off while we move them from the night area or day area.  Some days this week I have done the cattle by myself some days I do it with the kids.  Most mornings I have been doing the animals in the morning in my pajamas because of getting so dirty especially IF we are going to something where I dress nicely.

Friday, I wanted to have a fun family day.  Thursday night Stick Boy was up all night coughing so I wanted to let the kids sleep.  I don’t have any pockets in my PJ pants so I grabbed a shirt with a breast pocket and put my phone in it in case the kids woke up and had a problem they could call me.  I let the chickens out, let the turkeys out, got the fodder, put Dakota back in the house, and fed the cattle.  I woke up Teen Son and Pre Teen Daughter so they could help with the sheep.  As we finished moving the sheep, Tomas and Butterball came walking down to watch what we were doing.  I reached into my pocket for my phone to take a picture and NO PHONE! 

I ran around all the places I had been in the morning except the cattle pasture hoping it wasn’t in there.  NO LUCK

Pre Teen Daughter and I start walking through the pasture.  We can’t find it.  I ask Teen Son to call me and we hear the ring tone very faintly.  Pre Teen Daughter walks up to Onyx and pushes her back a little (yes Onyx is gentle enough my 76 lb daughter can push her around) and there is my phone.  Slightly scratched up but mostly useable.  

Happy Birthday!

Our son turned 15 Yay!  For his birthday celebration he wanted to have a few friends spend the night then have a bunch of friends come for the day and then have kayak races and run around the property with a February birthday often we have to be inside but I like his positive attitude.  Let’s try it!

We need to move the sheep and cattle into different areas.  The cattle we moved into a pasture with our neighbors horses to eat what the horses wouldn’t eat for just a couple days and somehow that turned into over a week with us not getting around to moving them.  One of the horses liked the fodder so much he chased the cows away from it. 

The morning of the sleep over, while I am making breakfast for all the boys, Birthday Boy informs me he made arrangements for the horse he is taking care of to get its feet trimmed.  Ok, so now while his friends are over we need to try to catch a horse that sometimes is an angel and you can put your arms around it and sometimes you can spend hours chasing it to catch it.  Great what fun!  While Darling Husband is eating his breakfast I remind him we need to move the sheep but think with all the kids here we can let them free range for the day.  Darling Husband says, “You are adding chaos onto chaos!”

We finish breakfast and go out to take care of the animals.  I walk up to get the fodder while Birthday Boy walks his FFA Lamb.  Then we let all the sheep loose and feed the cattle and try to catch Magic.  Magic doesn’t want to be caught.  Every once in a while one of Birthday Boy’s friends walks towards the sheep as if he will pet them but they run away from him.  We ask Stick Boy to keep an eye on the sheep.  After 30 minutes of almost getting a rope around Magic’s neck we ask Stick Boy where the sheep are “What Sheep MOM?”  So 8 of us start looking for the sheep, who had decided to go visit a neighbor.  We get them back on the property and they start eating happily.  Darling Husband turns to me “I told you this was a bad idea.  I thought I was clear I didn’t want the sheep out today”.  I said “You said I was adding chaos onto chaos.  I thought that was just our life.” 

We get back to the business of catching Magic with only 10 minutes until the Ferrier arrives.  Magic runs from me with hay in my hand.  Magic runs from Birthday Boy then stops and stands still.  Birthday Boy walks up and puts his arms around the horse’s neck, I walk over and we gently put a rope around his neck and then get the halter on.  Magic gets his hoofs trimmed and everything finishes up just as more boys arrive for the party. 

Mother Nature gave us a beautiful hot day!  The boys had kayak races, played bumper kayaks, jumped off the rope swing into the pond.  The sheep would wander over and check out the boys every once in a while and didn’t go visiting any neighbors.  Fillet that naughty steer found ways to get out 2 times.

All the boys were supposed to leave at 5:pm and I let them know any that stayed late would help us move the sheep fence.  At 5:20 we still had 3 boys so they helped move the sheep fence and set up the solar charger.  By 6: all the animals were where they belonged and fed.  We still need to move the cattle but tomorrow is another day.

It was a great day!  Happy Birthday to my son!

Frisky Sheep

Most days I think I deal with my youngest daughter’s mental illness pretty well.  Most days I try to deal with her issues with love and humor.  I think she goes to bed feeling loved most of the time and that is huge progress, but we have had a rough couple weeks.  This morning I lost my lovin feeling and my humor and joined my daughter in being spitting mad. 

This afternoon everything was fine.  Pre-teen daughter likes to take care of the sheep by herself in the afternoon.  Normally they walk into their night enclosure without any problems BUT this weekend we moved the sheep.  They are in nice grass and weeds with big rocks that the sheep can jump on.  They are in sheep heaven!  They have not been eating the hay and fodder we give them.  Today the sheep seemed to tease Pre-teen Daughter and she started screaming at them.  Screaming at animals doesn't work.  The sheep thought it was another reason to run around and jump off rocks. 

Pre-teen Daughter screamed at her brothers to help and they asked her to ask nicely, that didn't help at all!  After watching his sister get more and more frustrated Stick Boy tried to go help her, but she kept screaming so he started waving sticks and jumping up and down.  This doesn't exactly get the sheep to go where you want them or calm down your screaming sister. 

My husband called me because I was at the top of the property and didn't hear the commotion.  We got Pre-Teen daughter to stop screaming and walk away, stopped stick boy from scaring the sheep, then Darling Husband and I cornered Blackwell (our biggest and sweetest sheep) I got the halter on her and walked her into the night enclosure the rest of the sheep followed like, well, sheep. 

We went back into the house and it took me over an hour to calm down Pre-teen Daughter.  I think I got her into bed feeling loved but I am exhausted.

This is how we move the sheep's night time enclosure from one area into another.  I asked to have it on wheels but Darling Husband thinks this is easier.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 

Usually I make a New Year’s Resolution to stop procrastinating.  This year I decided not to even bother trying.  I’m accepting me.    

Ruby is looking at me instead of the hay.      DH trying to coax the cattle into the trailer.

Finally the steers wanted to eat and everyone else followed them.

Not a lot new has been happening here. 

We have moved the sheep a few times and moved the cattle back to the side pasture.  The pasture they were in is at the bottom of our property and often gets ice down there.  I am always amazed at the difference in temperature from our house to the bottom of the driveway.  I do not have to walk on frost most mornings now and the cattle are a lot closer.  I like that! 

The cattle are happy to be back in a pasture with grass.

The person we are getting the cargo container from keeps putting off our purchase date.  She is moving and needs to clean it out before we buy it – so the fodder is still in the shower and we producing 1 tray a day.  It is enough to keep them trying the fodder but not enough to cut down on our hay purchases.